There's sh*t on the path - part I

There's sh*t on The Path today. Half way through the walk my phone (on which I record my experience) closes down. My initial urge is to race onwards. Get the walk over with because if I come up with something useful I'll only forget and then I'll be more frustrated than if I'd never walked the walk. What a shame though, to race ahead. Losing all the other benefits of walking my walk.

I take a few paces back to where my phone disconnected to see what's there. Although by that I mean what discomfort I was feeling at that point, what is there is a plastic bag of sh*t. Dog poop in a plastic bag. A crazy concept in my opinion. Instead of letting the sh*t be washed away by the rain or naturally decay back into the earth (where it can actually help towards new growth) we bag it up in plastic thereby preserving it for the next 500 years or so. I imagine there are millions of poop bags being created every day - that are going nowhere fast. We must be creating one hell of a poop mountain, quite unnecessarily. Let the dogs, the owners, and the sh*t be, I say!

And so, with the theme of disconnection running through my mind I notice an ache inside as I consider loved ones that are not particularly interested in what I write. But why do I need them to be interested? I ask myself. I know in the bigger picture love is unconditional, that is, whether they are curious about me or not. Yet I also notice the heartache of perceived separation. Disengagement by one or both parties can make being in relationship seem more limited. I want to share my world so that they might come to know me better. I want to know them better too. I love the sense of connection and growth that sharing brings. That although we may feel alone and isolated from time to time essentially, we are all in this together. 

As I reflect on all this I sense this isn't really about them, its about me. It's about the importance of staying open to my experience of being in relationship. There is so much to learn. I am reminded that true connection comes from within, and that the depth of relationship I have with others is a measure of the depth of relationship I have with myself. 

To those who are reading this and to those who are not, I love you.

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